SDShad - Precisely!!! The mistake that anti-theists usually make is that they assume people who believe in God believe in the same utterly childish and unlikely concept of God that the anti-theist has already concocted in his own imagination (or gleaned from the ravings of TV evangelists) and decided not to believe in.

My belief in God is quite similar to yours, and in no way violates or opposes a scientific understanding of life, although it does touch on a number of areas that conventional science is at present either partially or wholly unaware of.

First the scientific mind seizes upon a primitive and ludicrous concept of God. Then it decides that that must be the God that all religious or spiritually-minded people believe in...

It's so convenient to assume that the "other guy" is simply an idiot with an idiotic belief...

What I have studied leads me to believe that God is the entire summation of "all that is"...the whole continuum...including science and scientists themselves. Each little part of that whole continuum is working toward the dawning awareness that it is One and in perfect unity with the rest. When a sentient being realizes the Oneness, then kindness becomes a given, as do all the other common virtues. We have a word for that...it's called enlightenment. It's also called salvation. It is the one thing that life is really about.

So when a non-believer says to me "I don't believe in God", I have to wonder what silly god he is talking about. To not believe in All That Is would leave one literally with no ground to stand on, after all...and no mind with which to form the notion of unbelief in something, and no mouth with which to utter the words.

I could just reply "Oh, well I don't believe in that god either, as a matter of fact!" But would I be understood? I seriously doubt it.

- LH